Comprehensive Local Information Is Only A Click Away With Local.com

The internet is a good global community, enabling you to get in touch with and connect with people and businesses throughout the world. But sometimes, your needs are more local in nature. You don't want to connect with businesses half-way around the world when you are in that situation. Getting relevant information that is based on your location sometimes becomes important.

Local.com has become my new favorite when it comes to local search. It is a redesigned site that has a new look and feel to it. It is actually a combination of 4 separate websites that used to be pretty good at what they did individually: Citysearch.com, Yelp.com, Yellowpages.com, and Superages.com. It gives you access to the information that these sites had, and a lot more in an intuitive, tabbed interface.

In combination, they have have become much better than they were separately. In addition to being able to search for local businesses on one tab (like an online version of your local yellowpages), local.com allows you to search for (and post, for free) classifieds in your local area in another tab. There is yet another tab that allows you to search for local events like concerts, shows, etc. And then there is the city information tab that simply has no equivalents in practically any local search application I have tried so far. This tab allows you to access statistical information about cities around the US, with information on population, median incomes and home prices, cost of living, education levels, etc., etc.

Local.com can not only help you locate local businesses (such as local restaurants for a quick casual or business lunch), but can also provide you with driving directions between where you are and where the business is located. You can find tons of information about the business such as opening and closing hours, contact information, etc. You can also read customer reviews of these businesses and/or write one yourself to help guide other customers. If you are a business owner, you can list your business on Local.com, and provide information that will drive customers to your business too.

I have always had problems with other local search websites because of outdated listings, outdated information, lack of integration with mapping options, etc. Local.com seems to have overcome most of those problems by making sure that the business listings are updated frequently, and integrating the search with other useful options like customer reviews, driving directions (that include local traffic conditions), business information, etc. The inclusion of the other tabs that allow you to search for classifieds, events, city information, etc., is just topping on the cake. If you haven't tried out Local.com, you should. You may not go back to your old way of looking up local information again!